Rustichello da Pisa

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"Il Milione" by Marco Polo

Rustichello da Pisa (also: Rusticiano, Rustaiciano, Rustico, Rustiniano, Rusticien or Rusticello da Pisa ; *  13th century in Pisa ; † 13th or early 14th century ) was an Italian writer , author of romances and co-author of the travel reports of Marco Polo .

Life

Little is known about the life of Rustichello da Pisa. Year of birth and date of death are unknown. The period of his work is narrowed down to around 1272 to 1299.

It is believed that Rustichello traveled to England and France around 1270, learned the French language there and accompanied the English Crown Prince, later King Edward I , on his crusade to the Holy Land from 1270 to 1272 . He wrote several chivalric novels in French, including around 1275 what is probably the earliest Arthurian novel written by an Italian . It is believed that he simply brought together and compiled other literary sources .

Rustichello was best known to posterity as the co-author of Marco Polo's autobiographical travelogue “ Il Milione ”.

It is possible that he was captured by the Genoese during a conflict between the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa , during the naval battle of Meloria (1284). When the Venetian Marco Polo became his fellow prisoner after the Battle of Curzola (September 8, 1298) between the fleets of Venice and Genoa, Rustichello wrote down Marco Polo's travel reports between September 1298 and July 1299 in the Palazzo San Giorgio , which was used as a prison .

It is unclear what part Rustichello played in the joint work. It is controversial whether Rustichello only received an oral dictation, wrote the travelogue from loose narratives independently or at least in part was able to fall back on written records from Polo. No handwritten travel records have been preserved from Marco Polo, although it is reported that while in custody he asked his father Niccolò Polo to send him notes and papers to Genoa. It is doubted that Marco Polo even understood the old French language in which the book was written.

What is certain is that Rustichello, as an experienced writer, at least played a decisive role in the stylistic design of the travelogues of the businessman Marco Polo. About 150 other manuscripts are based on Rustichello's original.

Works

literature

  • Dietmar Rieger : Marco Polo and Rustichello da Pisa. The traveler and his narrator . In: Travel and travel literature in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . Rodopi, Amsterdam 1992, ISBN 90-5183-325-3 , pp. 289-312.
  • Frances Wood : Marco Polo didn't get to China . Secker & Warburg, London 1995, ISBN 3-492-03886-7
  • Marina Münkler : Marco Polo: Life and Legend . C. H. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-43297-2 .
  • Marina Münkler: Experience of the Foreign: The Description of East Asia in the eyewitness accounts of the 13th and 14th centuries . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-003529-3 .
  • Yves Martin Görsch: On Marco Polo: Il Milione - The wonders of the world: A search for the original . GRIN Verlag, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-53398-5 .
  • The wonders of the world - Il Milione . Translation from old French sources and afterword by Elise Guignard, Insel-Verlag (Insel-Taschenbuch 2981), Frankfurt am Main - Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-458-34681-4 .
  • Matthias Däumer, Cora Dietl, Friedrich Wolfzettel (eds.): Artushof and Artusliteratur . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-022135-0 .
  • Jürgen Buchmann : Grammar of the Languages ​​of Babel. Recorded after the conversations of the Messer Marco Polo, nobleman from Venice, by the hand of Maestro Rustichello da Pisa, who is also called Rusticiano, in the prison in Genoa . Leipzig, 2010
  • Fabrizio Cigni:  RUSTICHELLO da Pisa. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 89:  Rovereto – Salvemini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rieger, p. 293
  2. ↑ a b Münkler: Experience of the Stranger , p. 105.
  3. ↑ a b c Däumer, Dietl, Wolfschrift, p. 311
  4. ↑ Rieger, p. 290
  5. ^ International Columbus Exhibition in Genoa 1951 . In: Universitas . tape 6 , no. 2 , 1951, p. 825-827 .
  6. ↑ a b Görsch, p. 15
  7. ↑ Rieger, p. 289
  8. ↑ Görsch, p. 14.
personal data
SURNAME Rustichello da Pisa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rusticiano da Pisa; Rusticiano da Pisa; Rustaiciano da Pisa; Rustico da Pisa; Rustiniano da Pisa; Rusticien da Pisa; Rusticello da Pisa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian man of letters, author of courtly novels and co-author of Marco Polo's travelogues
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa
DATE OF DEATH 13th century or 14th century